Empty shops will get a new lease of life under a plan to revitalise high streets, according to the Daily Mail. Landlords will reportedly be forced to let out retail units that have been vacant for longer than six months under Government proposals.
It could allow community groups and small businesses to take over boarded-up properties that blight once thriving town centres, "hopefully returning them to their former glories".
One in seven shops are said to be sitting empty according to latest figures from the British Retail Consortium. The north-east of England has the highest vacancy rate, with one in five closed.
